01 May 2007

There are several improvements in this year e-Filing that makes this web service from LHDN more usable:

If you have not used e-Filing last year, you don't have to go to LHDN branch to get your PIN number. The PIN number for you to download your digital certificate is at the second page of your Tax Form.

You don't need to fill up a PDF form. Last year the compatibility of PDF version did caused troubles to many people. The entire filing process is done in LHDN's e.hasil.org.my web site.

All calculations are done when you fill up the online form. You still need to do some calculations, i.e. total receipts for medical and education insurance premium, purchase of books, etc. But overall the auto tax computation function eliminate many unnecessary tables, rows and columns. The entire process is simple and the online form is clean.

You can save your work (press "Simpan dan teruskan") and exit (press "Keluar"), and to come back in few hours later to complete your tax works.

Off course there are still some minor problems:

LHDN, being an inflexible government body, still do not provide language option like English, Mandrin, Tamil, etc. They assume everyone who fill the tax form must know Bahasa Malaysia. I suspect they forget their role is to make tax submission easy. Residents are NOT the same as citizens. They are many foreign expatriates who are resident under tax law and who cannot read Bahasa Malaysia. I had to called my friend to ask some of the meaning of words, i.e. what is "papar" (regarding my Digital Certificate). It will be good if LHDN will provide multi-lingual tax form in the future. We are a country with lingual diversity.

The process of filling up the form, at times, can be really slow. May be this is due to last minute submission. However, LHDN should ensure sufficient capacity to deal with last minute submission.

eBayaran is a joke. Unless you have CIMB or Public Bank internet banking account, you will still need to physically go to your banks...errr...only for two more banks, i.e. Maybank2e and Hong Leong Bank, to register before using the eBayaran. I decided to physically go to Public Bank to pay my tax.

More explanations should be provided in the online form guiding those who are less financial savvy in filling up the form, i.e. what should be done in "isteri" form, if you choose "bersama atas name isteri", etc. (answer: add another RM3000 relief in your "isteri" form)

Overall, tax submission process was much improved this year. It should be the way to go for the future.